Knoxville to Charlotte -- Apr 7th

After I left BW3s I found a little RodeWay Inn and got a room for 40 bucks. Watched some TV and crashed. In the morning I went downtown Knoxville and got a light lunch. I found a cool little diner online and surprised myself and had tuna salad, cottage cheese, and macaroni salad. Then, I drove around a little bit, the town is really cool. It’s got character. I was going to visit the Tennessee campus, but I drove by an awesome park on the way, so I had to stop and take some pictures. I had to park quite a bit of distance away, and as I walked towards the park from my car, there was an art museum with a sign out front that said “Free Admission Today.” That was a nice coincidence. So I stayed there for about an hour. It was pretty lame except for two exhibits. The first was a collection of miniature reproductions of early 1900s rooms, completely furnished, it was pretty cool. Evidently the woman had a rich husband and nothing to do but collect miniatures. Furniture makers used to make miniatures and bring them around to trade shows, exact replicas 1 foot =1 inch. She collected as many as she could find and made other pieces herself. She decided after awhile to put them all together into sets and eventually had assistants And Eveything. She made thousands of them. The other one was a really cool glass exhibit. Many undescribable pieces, but the crowns of the collection were solid 100+ pound spheres of layered artistic glass, most of them made to look like strange new planets. I also got a form to sign that made me eligible to win one of his pieces. The one they’re giving away is 2000 dollars. I finally got down to the park, which was called World’s Fair Park, and it has a giant sphere on top of a cylinder, reminds me of the world’s fair expo pictures I’ve seen.

After that I drove around the Tennessee campus, it was much smaller than Vanderbilt, but the weather was nice and there were a myriad of beautiful girls walking around. Then I snuck into the football stadium and took some pictures. Then I got the hell outta there because I wanted to make it to the Smokey Mountain National Park at a decent time. The drive to the park was insane. It was like Branson. Just shop after shop and waterparks, and restaurants and every kind of way to consume along the way. This went on for about 5 miles straight, then stopped, then started again, and went for another 3 miles. Finally I got to the park. I got there about 3. It was really beautiful, but unfortunately, the way I wanted to take was closed because they got 10 inches of snow the night before. I think it made for better pictures though. It was about 40 degrees all day, and it was snowing off and on. Pretty strange, the beauty of the snow, but I didn’t even need a coat. I took a winding road through the park that had a gorgeous river flowing over rocks the whole way. I probably stopped every 2 minutes to get out of my car and take photos. Finally, I headed out to try and make it to Charlotte near nightfall. Driving through the Smokies was amazing! I am a new huge Tennessee fan.

The mountains continued into North Carolina, but NC seems a bit more hillbilly to me. It could be because my GPS made me take one of the most backwoods roads I’ve ever seen, but it definitely has that vibe. There was a near blinding snowstorm most of the way to Charlotte, and I saw a new road sign: Remove Sunglasses. It was right before I went into a tunnel. Pretty unique. How cool would that be to have in your poker room or something. I arrived in Charlotte around 9 and stopped at my second Food Network dive. I ate at BBQ King, it is a drive in, much like Sonic, but older. I got a BBQ pork sandwich and fries. Carolina style BBQ, of course. Carolina style for those who don’t know has no tomato based sauce, it is a vinegar based sauce and has cole slaw on top. It was very good, and only 5 bucks. Thanks again Guy Fieri! Then I drove around and got some pictures of the skyline at night as well as the Bobcats and Panthers stadium. I don’t feel like I have the same boundaries in a different city. I sneak into stadiums and into backlots and pull into sketchy areas by railroad tracks to get pictures. Maybe if I had the same drive all the time, I might have a pretty decent portfolio.

I then asked my GPS where to stay and called a few places, drove to a Best Value Inn, and drove out. I decided I would pay 10 dollars more for somewhere that wasn’t on the last COPS episode I saw. So, I found a Motel 6, and it seems fine, except I can hear the neighbor’s daughter crying. Luckily, that only went on for about 10 minutes. This blog took entirely too long. I was considering finding a bar nearby, but now it’s almost 1 here. I won’t try and blog while watching a new show. I’m watching In Treatment on HBO, it’s very magnetic. Good Night.